I am going on a diet, there I have said it. It is now out in the open and I will probably regret telling you.
I have decided to lose some a lot of weight because, I have read:-
Cognitive reflection’s funny post about joining a fighting class, in the hope of losing some weight and nearly getting himself thumped.
Also Duffer’s thread on the British Expats forum, entitled Fat people I need some help.
And finally, because I caught a glance of myself, in the mirror as I left the shower. I managed to realise it was me, before I started shouting to Mrs Sensible, “Help help there’s a naked fat man running amok in the house”.
I apologise that this is not a very Italian themed post, and I will try not to get too graphic.
I didn’t think it was possible for a simple bathroom fixture, for example a set of weighing scales, to induce a near heart attack. But they did. This morning I weighed myself at seven in the morning (84 kilo), ate a little breakfast and just before I cleaned my teeth I weighed myself again. One small bowl of cereal using low fat milk had increased my weight by two kilos. TWO KILOS!!!, as I stood in the bathroom thumping my chest trying to restart the heart rhythm, I kicked the scales and then stood on them again; the scales dropped from 86 Kilos down to 80 kilos. So the foul tasting low fat milk really works.
The bathroom weighing scales have been thrown in the bin.
I have now successfully completed 24 hours on my diet; no chocolate, wine, biscuits or beer have passed my lips.
Full of good intention this lunch, I went for a walk to the local café. I normally drive home and raid the fridge and drink a little wine. However while I was sat drinking my low calorie drink, Mrs Sensible called me with the “where are you and have you eaten the salad I left in the fridge for you?” Ooops, I tried to pacify her, by explaining about my 12 minute walk and that I wasn’t drinking a glass of wine. Needles to say she was not very impressed. I am glad I didn’t mention that it was so hot I was eating a Magnum to cool down.
I have also invested in a brand new set of weighing scales, not the old spring type that you can achieve your desired weight by leaning slightly to the left or the right, but electronic ones. They not only tell you how heavy you are, they also tell you how much of your body, is pure unadulterated fat. I am not sure if it distinguishes between fat and saturated fat, I know from the Magnum bar that there was 15.5g of fat and 11.2 grams of dreaded saturated fat, in that cooling delicious ice cream.
Because the new weighing scales are complicated and the instructions are in Italian, I have used google translate to understand the user instructions. The, input your height and age, so that it can work out my height to weight ratio so that it can work out how fat I am allowed to be was easy. I have thought about lying to it and imputing that I am six foot three, and then telling the truth after I have lost a bit of fat. But as a black sheep I know I will get caught. After the input instructions, the Google translate sounded a little strange, it started babbling on about standing on the scales buck naked so the scale can electrocute my feet by battery, to work out my fat and water content. I might have to ask Mrs Sensible about that one.
Apart from scratching and laughing the only exercise I do is walking to and from the car. Before you lot start shouting, I did spend the weekend digging the vegetable plot over, and then two days walking around like an old man, moaning every time I had to stand up.
So please use the comments for advice on how to lose weight.
In the immortal words of Garfield: Diet is Die with a T. I wish you luck, and let us know how the electrocution goes…
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The new scales put my weight at 83 Kilos, so I am already I kilo better off.
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You need 100 calories for every pound you weigh. This is your basal metabolic weight. So if you weight 130 pounds (60kg) you can eat 1300 calories to maintain that weight, if you are sedentary (which a lot of us are). Work out what you want to weigh in pounds and eat 100 calories for every one of those pounds. You should lose weight pretty quickly. Buy a calorie counter and record everything you eat. Don’t worry about your fat percentage on those scales. They are not accurate and can be influenced by your hydration level. As a lifelong dieter, I salute you brave soldier and wish you well!
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The new scales, claim my body fat is 33%. Either they are wrong or I am fatter than I thought. 😦
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I have a love affair with Italian food so I know if I ever lived in Italy my weight would be more of an issue for me. Here’s what helps me. I drink a large glass of water before eating and any time I think I am hungry, sometimes that’s all I need. I eat slowly so my stomach can tell me when its full. Studies say it takes 15 minutes once full to send the signal to our brain. And finally, I only eat real food. Good luck.
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I need to eat slower. When I was young, if you didn’t eat fast my elder brother was bound nick my burger or sausage. It is a habit I need to change. 🙂 I didn’t know about the 15 minute rule, but it makes sense.
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I’m told it’s easy … eat less, move more…. Yes, easy to say, but not so easy to do!
How about brushing your teeth if you feel hungry – I find I don’t want to eat when I have just brushed my teeth. 🙂 Also, sometimes we mistake hunger for thirst, so if you feel hungry have a glass of water and see if that helps.
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I am eating loads of carrots. When I am hungry wash a couple and eat those, maybe my eye site might improve.
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I’m not saying I recommend it, but I had to cut out wheat and dairy for a while last year (long story, and really not that easy in Italy!) and I lost 12 kilos in a couple of months. Just eat lots of grilled meat, rice, vegetables and fruit, and you can even have a bit of red wine…
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I like the red wine bit, but I am not sure about cutting out wheat, I love my pasta and pizza. Although pizza is a no no at the moment.
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The pizza was the most difficult part for me, I was so excited when I could eat it again! You can get rice pasta though, which tastes pretty much the same. I just found it so embarrassing going into great little restaurants and having to ask for grilled chicken and vegetables…
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Grilled chicken and salad last night, with a small glass of white wine.
Good luck with the removal van and cyclists.
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Move to Latvia. I’ve lost around 5 kilos since coming back from England in September. Also, you seemed to lose 6kgs just by brushing your teeth – maybe you’re not fat but just have a lot of plaque build-up? (You also may have to change your message post to ‘as soon as I finish my salad I will respond’) 🙂
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ha ha, I am tempted to alter the message. I think I might give Latvia a miss, it sounds way too cold.
The plaque build up bit has just put me off my dinner, so that will save me a couple of grams.
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I’m so helpful 😉 Mrs Sensible won’t be happy if you keep avoiding that salad!
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I am a salad dodger.
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Smaller plates. Due to lack of shelf space (yes really) we only have little plates and I refuse to buy more until we’ve renovated. So our tiny plates are toppling over with food and everyone thinks they have loads to eat. Simple!
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great idea. I will need to eat off a eeny weeny plate if I am too be ready for the beach this summer.
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You’re not alone in the struggle , dear friend.
Coraggio!
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Grazia amico
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I put on a couple of kilos while on a motorbiking holiday in Sardinia last week. I look rather podgy round the waist now, so it’s back to my zumba classes to exercise it all off. Normally works too.
More exercise and healthy eating should be sufficient to find your ideal weight. Says she with a glass of rosé and bag of mixed nuts to hand… It’ll take a while… 🙂
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I would love to visit Sardinia, the best man at my wedding was from there.
And nuts and wine, they don’t last long in this house.
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Oh good for you! My husband and I like to talk about losing some weight, though I have a feeling he is just humouring me. At the moment, nothing has happened yet and we are still “talking” about it. Now if only all that”talking” was enough, we’d have achieved our weight goal by now!
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I need to lose the weight, it will be summer holidays in 3 months and I want to be beach ready 🙂
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Liquid diet? How calorific could beer or alcohol be if it’s the only thing your consuming?
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You get 10 brownie points for the best suggestion yet. 🙂
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I highly recommend it! Also, excuse my your you’re mixup 😦 Sad English teacher.
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I know exactly how you feel about wanting to be slimmer for summer! I think I would have a lot of trouble dieting if I lived in Italy, I love Italian food too too much and I know I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to give up red wine and chocolate! In fact if I had to choose between the two I’m afraid the chocolate would have to go!!! 🙂 Good luck! 😀
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I agree, I would rather give up chocolate than red wine. We have a great home made drink over here, it is a chocolate liquor. Very thick, very chocolatey, very alcoholic and very drinkable…
Also banned from my diet.
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I feel your pain & salute your efforts in the face of such chocolatey/Alcoholic wonders. I will raise a glass (or two) of vino rosso in your honour this evening! 😀
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Save me a glass, please
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I will pour one in your honour & not drink it until the end of the evening, then raise it & send you a virtual ‘salute!’
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I was never one for cutting out foods that I like, but limiting portion sizes of wheat and/or sugar heavy foods, and how often you eat them, really helped me. Have it less often, in smaller quantities, but better quality – that way it doesn’t feel like deprivation, and can actually feel like a treat 🙂 Also, as other have said before me, more water.
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I have had to cut out foods, there is no way I could eat half of a pizza diavola and leave the other half for the next day. At the moment I am eating grilled chicken with salad, and grilled or steamed fish with salad. uffa!
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OMG! I SOOOO relate to this post!! I lived in Italy for a year, and came home to NY and as my sister put it I was ” well fed” … I had gained 20lbs! (I think that’s about 10klg) I exercised my butt off! I did boot camp style classes and got really into yoga and started distance running. I have lost all the Italy weight now but it took me about 4 or 5 months to actually keep it off and maintain my weight.
Good luck! And best advice I was given is to find what works for your life style.
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Boot camp sounds like a good idea. 4 to 5 months is too long. I want to be slim by summer 😦
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I’ve learned to never deny myself anything because the minute I say I can’t have it, I want it, I want real bad! Seriously, I keep a food diary. It’s helpful to keep one that includes calories but I have found that the mere act of having to record what I’m eating is enough to help me abstain. Many a time I have refused a chocolate treat because I did not want to log it in my diary. How is Mrs. Sensible with her diet? It helps if your partner is willing to adjust their eating habits too. Good luck, amico.
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🙂 I am the same, I am dreadful when I am told, you can’t do that or you shouldn’t eat that. It is a red rag to a bull.
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I like that: “a red rag to a bull.” That’s exactly how it feels. I had the same problem when I tried to quit smoking. I haven’t smoked a cigarette in years but I’ll never say I quit because that will only send me off to bum one off the nearest smoker. Weird psychology.
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My dad stopped smoking when he was 45 ish. Even when he was 70 he said he could light up a cigarette when he smelt one. I don’t think you ever stop.
I am glad I never started. I was too scared my mum would beat me to a pulp.
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My husband is my greatest deterrent to lighting up again. I can’t bear the thought of his disappointment.
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It is hard, just keep at it.:)
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I’m doing the same thing right now. I’ve been using myfitnesspal.com and it’s been really helpful. Good luck!
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I will have a look at myfitnesspal.com , I have an app on my playbook that charts my weight. But the biggest incentive is the mirror.
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I use myfitnesspal.com too. I have the app on my iPad. It’s a great app. The database is huge and it’s pretty easy to log your food and exercise, especially if you have routines. A little perk is once you logged your food and exercise for the day, the app will tell you how you will weigh in 5 weeks if everyday is like that day. So if I’m good, it’s an incentive because I get a positive message about my diet. If I’m bad, it helps me put on the brakes 😉
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wow… I will have a look when I get home.
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This is too heavy for me man !! 😉
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🙂
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The only thing that forced me to loose weight was chasing after a toddler all day. 30 pounds, uhh I mean 14 kilos, so far.
What are you doing with all that excess high fat food in the house ?
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Maybe I could hire a toddler for a couple of weeks. It might even make a good business venture. The mothers pay you for a two week holiday from the kids, and the fat people pay you for the exercise they get.
Regarding the high fat food….
Eating itThere is a rather large bar of chocolate staring at me in the cupboard.LikeLike
And you shouldn’t feel too bad, if I’m doing the conversion right I’m
still fatter than you at about 95 kilos.
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Depends on how tall you are. I am 5 foot 7 ish. You know how women say the fat goes to their bum. Mine sits right in front of me on my tummy.
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My fat clumsy fingers hit send too quickly on the previous comment! I’d offer to partner with you on the toddler watching business, but I’d just eat all the kid’s left over food.
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Ha ha ha,
It is a good idea
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Apparently new studies suggest sugar is the culprit and not fat because we’ve been eating low fat foods for decades and the obesity epidemic is worse. What do low fat foods have more of? Sugar. Because when you take the fat out the food tastes like crap so they have to put something in it to make it edible.
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That is interesting, we tend not to eat ‘low fat foods’ Mrs Sensible cooks everything from scratch. Sometimes we buy veggie burgers and of course yogurt.
My problem is lack of exercise, too much good food, eaten too fast with a glass of wine or two.
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Ah well. Mrs Sensible does sound very sensible then. Cooking everything from scratch is not only the best way but the yummiest! I can understand your problem of too much good food 🙂
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Yup, too much good food..
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Why not try the FAST Diet? You restrict your calorie intake for just 2 days a week and eat normally for the other 5 days. Just type in 5:2 diet or the Fast Diet into Google for information 🙂
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Hi Marianne, I will have a search for the fast diet.
But I think I need to restrict my calorie intake for 7 days 🙂
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I wish I was 84kg, that works out the just over 13 stone. How tall are you?
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Short, fat but remarkable handsome. 🙂
170 cm or in real money 5 foot 6 ish I think
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:D, yeah i go with the real money, none of that fancy metric lark.
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It drives my wife up the wall, when I say something cost 30 pounds instead of 30 euros. I know we use euros, but sometimes the mouth works faster than the brain.
And 70 miles an hour makes sense, what is 120 kilometers????
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as the pound and the euro are almost the same value it doesnt make much difference 🙂
km, what are they? never heard of em. lol
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Neither have any Italian drivers……
They drive faster then the guy in front of them.
I watched a BMW tailgate a police car on the motorway near Naples. Eventually the police car moved over and the BMW accelerated away.
After looking at my wife’s driving licence, I asked where do they write additional points…. she said she didn’t know. I have asked 2 other Italians and they didn’t know either.
Speeding is as natural as eating pizza here.
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I love love having fresh juice as breakfast. If you mix in veggies like spinach or kale, it will clean you out 🙂
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I might pass on that one. Give me a bacon sandwich with eggs, tomato and sausage anyday. 🙂
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smart man.
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Always remind yourself that muscle weighs more than fat. All my life I tried gaining some weight so I wouldn’t look like a living skeleton. Well, I’m now at what should be my perfect weight, except it didn’t settle where it was meant to go. A disproportionate amount decided to settle around my waist and create a ring of blubber. Be careful what you wish for!
And thanks again, for following my stories at 1950 Suburban Adventures.
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Oh yes, and old Chinese proverb..
The trouble is I don’t want to spend my life looking like a pot bellied pig…. wearing sunglasses.
I found your posts funny. I will read some more tonight.
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gosh lots of good advice in all those comments PN… sorry can’t help as I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to lose weight. I find that it helps if it’s not in the house ( “it” meaning the biscuit, the cake, the chocolate etc). Mr C has lost a lot of weight by cutting sweets (he has a VERY sweet tooth) and replacing them with fresh fruit. Good luck, hope you don’t meet that stranger in the bathroom again 😉
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Scared myself to death… 🙂
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what are u doing sitting there in front of your computer?… go out for a walk or a jog. Don’t you have a bike? explore the neighbourhood (don’t upset Gilda though…)
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1) It is raining, 2) I am hungry 3) It is still raining.
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in the world of slimming, they call these
1)excuses, 2)excuses and 3)excuses… 😉
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I nearly pressed the spam button by mistake. 🙂
I have lost half a kilo……..
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half a kilo by pressing the spam button on my comment? let me spam some more, you’ll loose plenty! 🙂 🙂
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If only it was that easy.
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Greetings, oh repentant Walkers crisp convert. Good luck to you; motivation is the key. I found motivation via cholesterol problems, gave up fat in my diet and lost 10kg. Reducing fat but not removing it entirely is helpful; once the first few kilogrammes shify, the motivation to continue kicked in. Keep us posted!
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Why oh why did you mention Walkers crisps…
I have tried to be very good, My habits have changed, I no longer feel the need to open the fridge every time I walk past it. However, I have developed a strange habit of stripping nude and standing on my posh new scales every time I walk past them.. Just to see, only to see if any more weight has evaporated.
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That means you’re hooked on the weight loss game, keep it up. But make sure that Gilda doesn’t get into the house whilst you’re running round in your birthday suit. Yuu don’t want her remembering that snake incident… 😉
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ha ha ha ha ha
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😀
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30 minutes of running at least 5 times week and after a month you will feel the change 😉
Plus you need to eat small portions if 5 meals per day, every 3h. Breakfast, small snack, larger lunch, snack and light dinner. Works any time 🙂
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Hi Monika, This sounds like very good advice.
The problem is I am a tad lazy at the moment. Last year we played running around the village every night. This year has been a bit difficult so no running.
I struggle with breakfast, my stomach doesn’t start to function until about 10 am. But as soon as 10 arrives I could eat a horse, dog and cat.
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You sound like my English husband 😉
To be honest I understand what you mean, I am lazy too. With me it was that one day a moment came when I knew I need to start doing something – running, exercising, anything and I followed 🙂 First few times were like hell, I could keep running for 5 minutes maximum and looked like a large pink sausage afterwards but I can’t describe even how good it made me feel that I actually did it. Now I exercise 7 times a week and it feels quite great actually.
Dieticians say to force eating breakfasts if you are not used to them, not sure if this works though (I am currently working on my husband’s habits 😉
They also say to write down everything you eat, when and how and then eliminate one problem (i.e. one item from the menu, wrong time) per week until you reach what you are happy with.
Anyway, good luck 🙂
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First the good news, I have lost 1/2 a kilo in the past 5 days, a kilo would be better. The bad news is I found the wine bottle, while I was grilling my chicken breast. SO this week I have sneaked, I glass of white wine and one grappa.
I really can’t do breakfasts. I have started to take a piece of fruit to work and eat it mid morning.
Exercise… arrrgh. If it stops raining today I will run around the village.
Thanks for the good luck
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A glass of wine is not bad 😉
Take it easy and you will get there and find your own way.
By the way, my fitness guru says you should avoiding counting kilograms and switch to measuring yourself. Apparently this is a better indicator of loosing weight. She also recommends to photograph yourself before and compare this regularly with reality 😉
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Mrs Sensible took some photos at the beginning of the week. I didn’t breath in or anything!!!
I think I will leave it a couple of weeks before we take any more.
I like the measuring bit, I forgot to do that.
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After 4 days of pigging out in Engalnd I returned to Paris over a kilo heavier! Damn those steak and kidney pies and chips and jacket potatoes and English beer and wine and chocolates etc etc. I should go on a diet but . . .
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Living in Italy around absolutely scrumptious food and wine … I do wish you Best of Luck! Alternatively try Dr Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer’s ‘The Fast Diet’ book … it works and for more things than just food/weight issue -:)!
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Good luck and best wishes for a positive motivation!
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Thank you, with all the great food and wine over here, I will need all the luck I can get.
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